Lena Kathryn Meier

The situation surrounding Lena's birth was surprising, crazy, and stressful. About two weeks before Lena was born Ali randomly got these extremely swollen lymph nodes in her neck. She had fallen off of a chair twice the day before, straight on her head. So the next day I noticed the lymph nodes and was worried that it had something to do with the fall. So we went in to see her pediatrician and they said it didn't seem like it had anything to do with the fall. They thought maybe it was just a virus. That was on a Monday. We went about our week and they were not getting any better. By Friday one of them was as big as a golf ball. You could see it protruding out of her neck. So I took her back to the doctor on Friday. When the doc examined her she also felt swollen lymph nodes in her groin area and both sides of her neck. The doctor sent us straight to the hospital to do some blood work. It was so scary for me. Luckily Adam was able to leave a conference he was at and come meet me. It took 4 people holding Ali down to get the blood they needed. It was a long afternoon waiting for the blood work to come back just because swollen lymph nodes without other symptoms can be some pretty serious stuff. But - the blood work came back showing it was none of that stuff and was probably just some kind of virus/infection.

Up until this point I had been hoping that Lena would come early. You know, the end of pregnancy just stinks. However, I didn't think I was going to be early because Ali was a week overdue, induced. A couple days after the blood work Ali got a fever/cough/runny nose and I was really just hoping Lena would stay in until she was all the way better.

That brings us to Sunday January 25, 2015.... Ali was right in the thick of her virus. Nasty cough, fever, runny nasty nose, lethargic .... Saturday night Adam had worked an overnight shift. When he works an overnight and then is switching back to days he tries to stay up most of the day so that he can sleep the night before he has to go back to work. That was the case on this day. He took a two hour nap when he got home from work and that was it. I went to church in the morning and Adam stayed home with sick Ali. It was a pretty normal day. When I got home from church we hung out for a while and then I took a nap. I started making dinner and in the middle of making dinner I started noticing some small contractions. That was pretty normal for me though. I have small contractions pretty much from 25 weeks on so I didn't think much of it. I did notice they were pretty consistent though. So I decided I better start timing them. That was around 7pm. Sure enough they were coming about every 3-5 minutes. They were not super painful though so I still kind of thought they were going to go away. So Adam told me to lay down for a full hour and see if they went away. I laid down and the entire hour they were coming at the same rate, some of them getting more and more painful. I started to panic. You see I thought I was going to be overdue and induced again. I made no plans. I didn't have a plan for Ali. I didn't have a bag packed ... nothing. Least prepared person ever. I started texting around trying to figure out something to do with my sick child. An amazing friend, Carlee Dynes, agreed to take my sick two year old for me and never for one second made me feel bad about it. She is an angel in my eyes. I called the OBGYN on call doctor and she told me to call back when the contractions were so painful I couldn't talk through them. About an hour later around 10pm were to that point and we headed to the hospital. Dropped Ali off at Carlee's on the way. I still was in major denial at this point. I thought maybe I was just being dramatic and panicing.

We got to the hospital went up to labor and delivery and got checked in. My favorite part was when Adam went to the bathroom and the nurse snuck in and asked me if everything was okay at home and if I felt safe there. I wanted to say no - my husband refuses to rub my feet and back!! So I was monitored in triage only for a few minutes before they told me I was in labor and checked me in. I was Strep B positive (again) so I had to have the antibiotics so they were not going to do anything to jumpstart labor until I had been on them for four hours. By the time we got moved to a room and all checked in and hooked up to the antibiotics it was 12am. I was getting uncomfortable but not too bad yet. We just hung out and watched TV for a little while. Adam went to sleep - remember he had only slept 2 hours in almost 48.

Around 1:30 or 2:00 the contractions started to get more painful so I requested the epideral at that point. This was a much different experience then my first one. It was a resident doing it so it took her about 6 times to get it right. It was pretty uncomfortable and they wouldn't let Adam come anywhere near me. It was also different because I could still completely feel and move my legs - last time they were completely numb. The person that did my epi told me that didn't give me very much of the meds because they wanted to see how I reacted and I could get more at any point. I was pretty comfortable though so I was find with that. around 3:30 I started to itch super bad. My nose and whole body were itching like crazy. At the time I didn't know what was going on - but soon I would know that it meant the epideral was wearing off. At 5am they came to check me and break my water. I was only at a 4 but I was effacing pretty quickly. They broke my water and everything started progressing quick. About 5:30 I was dying of pain again. I had already called the nurses to come give me more meds and they were ignoring me. I think at this point the epideral was pretty much all the way worn off. I kept calling the nurses telling them I needed more and no one was coming in. It was horrible. I was crying and wanting to die every time I had a contractions.

Finally about 6:30 or a little after I started feeling sooooo much pressure and I knew I needed to push. I was telling Adam I couldn't help but push and he went out to get someone. The midwife who was delivering me (at the hospital I delivered at a midwife delivers you unless you are high risk) came in to check and she said you are at a 10 it is time to push. I told her I wasn't going to push until I got more pain meds. She told me I didn't have a choice. I was pissed!!! I had been calling them for over an hour telling them I needed more. I was not prepared to have a baby natural. I was freaking out at this point (remember I had to push for two hours with Ali) I didn't think I was going to be able to do it. From this point on just picture a movie with a lady screaming and crying and pushing when she could. Luckily Lena was born at 6:48 and I am pretty sure I felt everything. I guess I can't say for sure but I really can't imagine it being worse and it it is I was already in so much pain that it wouldn't have mattered. I felt like my tail bone was breaking... Im pretty sure it did. The midwife was horrible. She was not motiving. She kept yelling at me telling me to calm down and push (in a really mean voice) I finally looked at her and screamed "YOU AREN'T HELPING" haha I am a little embarrassed about that now but seriously she was being mean. I must have made her feel bad though because she apologized to me like 300 time the following two days.

Lena weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and was 20 inches long. She is the sweetest little baby. We are so so glad she came 10 days early and is in our family!

 Yes I know. I look swollen and nasty after I give birth!